Revisting HOB has been like remembering your favorite Halloween, even if it’s just the memory of the best parts of each your life’s Halloweens. The one with the kickingest parties, the one with the best/most candy, and the ones with experiences that made you really consider the nature of fear, mortality, and the failing of years. These are things we very much wish to revisit, but their very natures, their express point, is that they have passed away.

Today Bar expressed a desire to continue with HOB: “There is so much more to tell.” Back in ’96, we had a number of different directions we wished to take the story; the strange friendship between Sandy and Hob, how the angels operate and what they are for, and of course, the impending Gulf War and its impact on them all.

And yet, no additional pages have been written beyond what’s posted. There remain those sketches of Mr. Hob we’ve promised. When we get them scanned and up, we’ll ping the blog. And any forums, if we ever get them live.

But for fans of our serious comic work, take heart. We have a series that is very old, and very new, brewing. In keeping with this month’s Star Wars mania, let us just say this:

“Senior Alysha Cosby became pregnant by a fellow student and was suspended in March, reasons cited being that she was a ‘safety concern’. Were they worried someone would slip in a puddle of amniotic fluid if her water broke? I just don’t get it.”
–Kim (basement variety!)Alas, A Blog, May 21, 2005

Seriously, that was a decision on our part, sitting in our kitchen, arrogant little %#!&%$ that we were. Its ‘Dragonmirth’ section was for fan humor cartoons. They had run four-panel strips before, but usually it was single-panel gags.

Most of these gags… were not that rip-snorting funny. Set against What’s New and Wormy, many were (and note this is our younger, arrogant-little-%#!&% selves talking here) just plain awful. But we were certain we could bring the funny. Though we’re not sure “bring the funny” was a common phrase back then.

Anyway. Chris had drawn a one-panel with several gags back in 1984, and–

Okay. Puns. The damn thing has five puns.

And we hate puns, naturellment. Dragonmirth was already crammed with them, mostly screamingly bad ones. Was this really our big push for a star on Sheridan Springs Road?

Oh yes. Because that pun-despising attitude is dripping off that panel. The characters, still without fixed names, are plainly in the middle of some actual story, an adventure of theirs, and not just set pieces for a one shot gamer gag. The way each character wields their puns already tells you more about them.

So we sent it in with some suggestions for an ongoing strip. We did have to mention Talanalan over the phone to convince them that a four-panel could fit in Dragonmirth (and if you recognize that reference without Googling, you get a cookie!) But with the technicalities out of the way, so began an eight-year romp which we were delighted to share with the gaming world.

Here come the last few pages– wherein we see what Hob does for a living… and whether it was safe to leave his “Small Men” alone at home. But then, have you ever tried to get into an interdimensional day care center on a moment’s notice? Of course not, it’s just a conversational fiction. Like wondering “whether it was safe” is really a set up for a conflict that’s screaming right around the corner.

You can leave some comments on the strip, now. If you’re having trouble with signing in, or whatever WordPress is demanding you do (we told the program to stop trying to hire our fans as drug runners) or if you just want to anonymously say hi, please let us know: yamara (@) earthlink *dot* net.

Okay. What is egg candling? It’s the method whereby egg producers tell whether they have salable eggs, or whether a chick has sprouted in there. Just hold it up to a bright light.

That’s it. Industrial science brightens our future.

Our only encounter with real-life egg candling was when a man came into Chris’ old place of work with a device the size and shape of Dustbuster, only bright light projected out of one end, and it had the most righteous 1950s case and chrome styling!! We are NOT kidding! (Google does not have a pic of this model, but does have these shots.) It was aquamarine, and had some of the most amazing curves– like some weapon out of Flash Gordon– entirely unnecessary touches to a utilitarian device.

If it weren’t for the competition in consumer electronics, our lives would be surrounded by the dullest of metal squares. Either that, or case modders would have enough work to open chain stores across the country. Or Japan would just own us now. Or both.